NEET counselling: SC gives relief to domicile candidates

10/10/2016

Giving a major relief to domicile candidates seeking admission to MBBS course through NEET counselling, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered to give preference to medical aspirants from the state by maintaining status quo on the allotment list released on October 2.

“The apex court made it clear that the students who have already completed the counselling process, held until September 30, should not be disturbed and that the list released on October 2 based on the process stands valid,” Madhya Pradesh’s additional advocate general Purushaindra Kaurav said.

Directorate of medical education (DME) said the admission process would start from Thursday following the court order.

“Like before, we will follow the court order and start the admission process from Thursday. The choice filling for the unfilled seats will start after assessing the status,” director of medical education GS Patel said.

Meanwhile, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan directed the DME to double the strength of officers and employees involved in counselling so that the whole process could be completed by October 7. At present 1000 officials are engaged in the admission process.

Vividly relieved domicile candidates, who have been waiting for the past one month to get admission in the medical colleges of the state through NEET counselling being held at Gandhi Medical College, here, hailed the court order saying justice had finally prevailed.

“The division bench of the Supreme Court has held that in private medical colleges of Madhya Pradesh seats should be filled by the domicile students only who have participated in the counseling held on September 30,” counsel Aditya Sanghi, who pleaded the case on behalf of petitioner Abhinav Dubey of Gwalior said.

In the second allotment list released on October 2 domicile candidates had been given preference for the admission. But the list was cancelled on October 3 by the DME after the Supreme Court directed to allot vacant seats to domicile students.

The allotment list was released for the admission to 92 seats in government medical colleges and 1674 in private medical colleges.